Saturday, 3 October 2009

Dress One: Wiggle in Green (aka Outfit 99)

And finally, my first dress for Frocktober, and it's pretty geeky but cute at the same time.

It's a 1959 wiggle dress, and probably looks better on me than Diana (although Diana has a fine figure, let's just say I fill those gaps a little bit more). This was from a vintage pattern, and it took so long because it was a little bit fiddly. With at least 2 darts in each pattern piece there was a bit of preparing to do (I kinda do darts too quickly, and there's a slight measurement stuff up on the front bodice bit that hopefully no one will notice) and THEN I didn't read the packet first on what materials I'd need because there are TWO ZIPPERS!

Yep, a back neck zipper that you chuck in first (only 7 inches) then a side zipper that you put in last and I'd never really done a side zip before!!! SUGAR! But I read the instructions through about 12 times (luckily it was one of those patterns that actually tells you how to sew the zip in) and it turned out ok! Although the flap is a little bit bigger than you'd find on a store bought dress, I'm pretty happy for my first side zip effort (where the flap hides the zipper).

BUT! I did alter the pattern to what I thought would make a better fit on my upper torso (my bod is usually in proportion to normal patterns apart from my shoulder to bust, which means straps have to be altered almost 2 inches) but in my haste I also altered the in built sleeves (vintage patterns often tend to have bodice and sleeves all in one) so the sleeves (perhaps you can tell in the front on pic above) are pretty tight around my arms. Husbie reckons that I should cut them off, and stick another sleeve on...?

Anyways, so it was a bit of a bigger project to start this Frocktober challenge, but oh well! Done now!

If you'd like to donate dosh or sign up for the real Frocktober and Ocsober challenge (for real charities) you can find them here for now, as I'll fiddle with my blog here and put a linkydink on the side bar soon.

And for extreme followers of my blog, this was Outfit 99 in the 100 Outfit Challenge... which means this current dress I'm working on will be Outfit 100. Yikes. Gulp. I'd like to say 100 Outfits went quickly... but it didn't! Phew Phew Phew!